Chapter Text
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The story is actually very simple. It can be summarised in one paragraph:
Damian thinks everyone is an idiot as usual, and Jason thinks everyone in the family is sick. Although Dick was a little angel, he felt that normal family did not live like this. And Tim, while watching the play, had to poke fun at all the mentally retarded operations of the family, especially Bruce.
Especially Bruce.
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At first, when Tim was brought into Wayne's mansion, he didn't think about what he was up against. What he meant was that his parents had died, he'd been adopted by the city's most famous dumb bachelor, and his family didn't know how much they'd have left when they came of age... What could be worse than right now?
-- And then he met Damian Wayne.
Tim: ... I was wrong. The worst thing in the world is to be your brother to a man who suspects that you're trying to get your property and wants to murder you every day.
Tim Drake, later Tim Drake-Wayne, saw the cruelty of the world at the tender age of 10.
Damian, who was only 13 at the time, was not unfriendly all the time. After nearly a year of attempted murder, he held his nose and admitted that Tim was an acceptable companion, not a brother, and that he would not have admitted it was his brother forever, even kill himself also not. For a year, Bruce lived like a goofy father, grinning stupidly as his two children killed each other, always kind, and crying as he declared that the war between his two sons was brotherly love, even when one was chasing the other with a knife. Bruce was accompanied by Alfred, who gave him his handkerchief. Even on the run for his life, Tim can't hold himself tried to think about how quickly he can bankrupt Wayne's business. Then, the two of them were able to sit down without fear that at least one cup of tea was toxic, but that didn't mean they would shake hands. They just moved the battlefield to a bloodless place. Damian, for example, replaced all the papers that Tim handed in with blank paper. Then Tim ran to Damian's classroom and sent all the boys love letters with Damian Wayne's name written on them.
After the battle of wits with Damian, Tim can proudly declare that there is nothing in the world that can defeat him. He survived Waynes until he was 14, and managed (with Damian's frantic interference) to go to junior high. By the way, on Damian's first day of high school, the desktop in every classroom was a picture of the tough guy falling asleep, surrounded by lovely cats and dogs, in a pink background. Don't ask Tim. He doesn't know anything. He's still in junior high school. In the public eye always unsmiling Wayne's heir to the image of the whole collapse (though not the first time), the most boring newspaper even suspected that he was a transgender, have to live in the desire for a male heir Bruce Wayne, under the threat of to curry favor with Bruce and hidden features, the last crying choose degeneration, however, Bruce still ruthless adopted Tim. The paper was later sued by Bruce for defamation of Bruce Wayne, not Damian.
Tim sometimes wondered why Damian hadn't put a knife in Bruce's stomach. Damian Wayne is either a man of great endurance or a man has crazy daddy issue.
All in all, although life was hard and sometimes messy, Tim grew up safe and normal. Just when he thought it was going to last, Bruce finally decided to help the Gotham rumors, demonstrating his fatherly love and commitment to killing Damian or Tim. Maybe it didn't matter who died to Bruce. He just wanted to enjoy the family killing each other.
On this ordinary day, Damian in high school and Tim in junior high, they had to come home on an ordinary weekend and face a smiling Bruce, who seemed to be giving out Christmas presents, and two strange children, huddled in the farthest corner of the room, hugging each other. The two children look about the same age, with dark hair and bright blue eyes that make them look like brothers. In particular, Tim watched them closely, and the larger, curly-haired boy held the other so tightly in his arms that he could have dug a hole to hide him. The younger child put one arm around his brother's neck and the other behind his back in a protective gesture, no doubt. Although both were shaking and there were visible tears on their faces, the children's body language showed they were very close and trying to protect each other. There is no such thing as a brother like Damian, Tim thought.
But then again, it was too strange. Tim wondered if he should call the police right now and report his adoptive father for kidnapping the child. He means, look at the way the boys tried to run but didn't dare. No one would think they were guests of their own free will on the mansion. No one.
"Father." Damian, shuffling behind Tim, passed Tim at the door when Tim struggling with conscience, Damian without even looking at him. As if Tim Drake-Wayne didn't exist, typical Damian self-deception. "You've got these boys here," he said, nodding his head down at them, as if pondering how to describe them. “for guest, is why."
Damian Wayne--Tim had finally known how to describe him--was the king of lies through his teeth. The next second he heard somebody shout his heart voice out:
"Are your eyes ornaments?!" The older boy threw back his head and shouted at Damian, “Screw your guest!” He looked like he was about to explode by all the strange people in the room.
The boy is a dead duck. Tim looked at Damian's impassive profile and silently crossed himself. "So," he said, trying to ignore the wonderful sarcasm between Damian and the boy, he made a memo to himself to remember to watch the surveillance. Then Tim turned his head and asked Bruce in a calm voice, who was sitting on the couch enjoying his older son's satirical art performance. "What did you do?"
"Oh." Bruce finally realized that he had not yet introduced the strange children who had suddenly appeared in the family. He strode over, picked up the two children who would stick together even in an argument, and pushed Damian away. Again, Damian hasn't killed Bruce yet it's true love. "Come and say hello, this is Jason, and this is Dick." He gleefully patted the boys' heads in a "surprise for you, son" tone, ignoring the fact that the younger one covered his own head to keep him from touching it, while the larger one nearly bit off his hand. "Look, this is Damian and the other is Tim."
"You're brothers from today. Are you happy?"
There was a moment's silence, and the thinking and faces of the four children, of all ages and characters, were in perfect unity:
How the hell did this stupid rich guy who doesn't care about the atmosphere grow up in Gotham?
* * *
After a chicken fly a dog to jump (mean Tim hold the knife from Damian which he unused for a while, explained Bruce Wayne is not a pedophile kidnapper to make Jason calm down, let dick believes Waynes also does not have the tradition of eating children), four boys can finally anchored to the sat at a table for “calmly" communication - should ignore some F words in the communication. It was four boys, that's right, not Bruce Wayne. Although he is emotionally and intellectually suitable this level, this man wears a bright smile all the way through, and none of the four of them wants to talk to him. So, they made this man who forty looks like twenty, and single but now with four sons, threw him on the sofa with an Alfred to listen his complain about his children. Now the four children sat opposite each other in what looked like a solemn courtroom statement.
"So," Tim said, struggling to retrieve information from Jason's exchange of trash with Damian, he looked up and asked the uneasy Dick sitting across from him. He had learned that his full name was Richard Grayson, the flying Grayson's orphan. "You met Jason on the street, didn't you?
Dick Grayson, struggling to make ends meet on the streets of Gotham after his parents both died in a performance accident, bumps into Jason, who is also alone, one day while looking for food, and survives by passing out. Then Jason, who was only two years older and more experienced in society, took him home to feed him. From then on, one wild cat became two wild cats, until one day, a year later, Bruce somehow wrapped it up with a wave of his hand. Tim asks as he searches his computer for information. Apparently, the Grayson’s' story is a bit of news in Gotham, and he quickly finds the story. Strangely, it doesn't mention how the Graysons' son turned out.
Dick looked over at Jason, who had begun to diss Damian with different languages, and nodded slightly. "Yes, Me and Jay... Jason took me in when I was on the streets." He wiggled his legs a little uncomfortably, the chair was too high for him to reach the ground. "He has no parents and I have none, so we live together." He threw up his tongue and laughed, obviously just thinking about all the fun he'd had with Jason.
"With all due respect, that's not living together." Damian, not sure when he started listening to their conversation, apparently decided to switch gears. "It's called street rats huddling together to keep warm." Wow, Tim was surprised at the lack of mercy, and even more surprised that it didn't seem to hurt the other two kids at all. Dick gave him a careless smile, but Jason, who had always been overprotective and competitive, did not jump in a split second.
"That's pathetic." Jason slouched back in his chair, his arms folded, gloating -- he was even proud of his past -- "That's the only way you can judge people from high level, right?" He looked so happy. "Me, dad went to jail, mom died of drugs, and I managed to support myself and dickie, too," he said, patting his brother on the head. "If that's what huddling is all about, I must be a huge stove."
Have to admit, Tim thinks he has a point. If Jason said is true-will children fabricated shameful history of their parents?-so children from the streets, however, is not only no drugs (Jason dynamic appearance how also not like touch those things) also did not become a victim of gang conflict, can even support himself, and a smaller boy, this is great.
But Damian certainly doesn't think so. He probably only admires someone who got a PhD at the age of five, a Nobel Prize at seven, and a flight to Mars at ten. So, by that standard, it's not strange that he's always thought of the whole world as crap. Not including Bruce, who will go streaking and Damian tell him he's in great fit. "Ignorance." Damian's deadpan response seemed to be to lean back like Jason. "Your so content with where you are that you haven't tried to go any higher."
"You should be more ambitious to live a better life."
Wait, that's not what Tim thought Damian would say. Tim jerked his head away from the computer screen to look at Damian after trying to search for news of Jason's parents. Unfortunately for Jason Todd, whose parents are as ordinary as anyone in crime Alley, he's already been trying to search prison lists. But anyway, if he got it right, Damian meant...?
Tim found out Damian was serious. Although they haven't known each other for more than two hours now, it's clear that both Jason and Dick have come to a full understanding of Damian's personality. They weren't stupid either. They could tell what Damian meant, but that was all the more surprising. The two children looked at each other, neither sure what had happened.
Damian Wayne, he's really giving advice on the street life of Jason Todd and Dick Grayson, without irony or scorn. "Are you content to 'feed' the two of you? That's not nearly enough." The look on his face reminded Tim of when he first met Damian, the tall boy in the suit who was taciturn because he could have it all without opening his mouth. Proud, calm, and effortless. Although Damian’s image in his memory is later updated to be delusional, sarcastic and easily provoked, he has to admit that the way he quieted down made Tim think that the news that his mother was a princess in a small middle Eastern country might be true.
Maybe someone has the magic, when he speaks to you seriously, you can no longer look into the other people. If it's hereditary, it's coming from Bruce.
Jason apparently didn't expect the scene to change from cat and dog fighting to life counseling. He gave a frustrated "cut", grabbed Dick's hand, and jumped out of his chair to walk away. "Thank you for your life advice. I'll think about it when I get back the street. By the way, say hello to your daddy. Anyway, he took Dickie and me a lunch. This will be the end of the story, and the young gentlemen, farewell.” This time Tim stopped them, with a smile and show the laptop screen to him, Jason will not provocative look is nice guy, so he seemed to put eyes on the screen and guess the out-of-touch guy would let him see the news about Wayne master and orphans, how kindness he is and then let he grateful say one or two sentences then they can smoothly home, from now on say goodbye to this big scary manor and the mental derangement brothers, perfect.
He guessed half right.
Tim had shown him the news about Bruce Wayne's love for orphans, but the news was about Bruce's announcement of his adoption half an hour before it was released. Apparently, while the four of them were sitting at a table and bickering, Bruce went through the adoption process and made it public with great vigor.
"Not guests now.” Oh, my God, he remembers this. Jason looked at Tim in desperation as he put down the computer and then reached out to both of them.
"You are officially one of the owners of this place from today." He jabbed a damian, "Are you satisfied now?" Tim also remember Damian apparently laughed at Jason's "satisfaction" earlier in the talk.
"... People who want to commit suicide, Drake, can do so directly. There is no need to ask in a roundabout way."
Jason grabbed Dick's hand and stood there looking at the fight. Apparently, Damian and Tim told each other with a war that they knew what they were doing. Dick looked at them with a twinkle in his eye, thought for a moment and shook Jason's hand happily.
"Huh?"
"So, we'll be living here from today, won't we?" Dick was clearly a man of great focus. He was now so full of joy that he could almost see everyone as a rainbow pony and, at worst, a marshmallow. Jason wanted to laugh at him for not being able to bear hardships, but after a while he withdrew his words and struck Dick on the head with a hand instead of letting him see his pessimism. "Well, if we don't get kicked out of the old Wayne family." He grimaced and let Dick leap gleefully to the computer screen to confirm the news.
Jason doesn't relax as easily as Dick. Honestly, Dick believes good guy all over the world. Jason is suspicious of everything, whether it is younger master Waynes who are addicted to fighting or master Wayne who is never reliable in life, he does not believe it, after all, he is not like Dick who woke up in Wayne Manor and did not know anything can be happily accepted for adoption.
Jason was sent to Wayne Manor by Batman.